As is well known, when an easy opening container is opened, a tear portion or panel is torn from the container to form an opening. The tearing of the sheet material leaves a relatively sharp edge on the removed panel and also leaves a relatively sharp edge on the rim of the opening. These sharp edges are potential sources of danger to the consumer particularly if the container or removed panel is carelessly handled.
This problem is particularly acute in the so-called full panel pullout in which the removed panel covers a major area of the can end. These full panel pullout ends are often used on a food product such as pudding, some of which may adhere to the inner or non-public side of the panel. When this occurs, the consumer may lick the inner surface of the removed panel and by so doing may cut his tongue. This of course is only one example of how one of the sharp edges on the panel can produce injury.
In our earlier copending application, this problem is solved by a protector or guard on the tear portion which extends along the periphery of the tear portion. The guard provides a relatively dull surface adjacent the sharp edge which shields the user from the sharp edge.
In one form, the guard includes multiple layers of sheet material formed integrally with the tear portion. Although the guard very adequately solves the injury problem, it introduces two additional problems. First, the guard inhibits the initiation of severance of the sheet material along the line of weakness. Specifically, easy opening container walls of this type are typically opened by depressing a peripheral segment of the tear portion inwardly. The guard, which may be in the form of a relatively stiff guard bead on the inner side of the tear portion, resists inward movement of the peripheral segment. Therefore, the initial "pop" is more difficult to obtain.
Following the initial pop, a paddle section of the tear portion is bent inwardly, usually about a bend zone, to rupture a segment of the sheet material along the line of weakness. This inward bending of the paddle section is typically brought about by pivotal movement of the opening tab.
Following such pivotal movement of the tab, the user pulls outwardly on the tab to pull out the panel from the container wall. The guard, however, has an edge which lies radially outwardly of the line of weakness. This edge tends to hang up during the initial pull on the tab so that the initial portion of the pulling phase of the opening operation is made more difficult.